Eleven Ideas for Awesome Halloween Costumes

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Halloween is almost here, which means access to free candy, parties, and more candy—if you have a costume. Maybe you can’t think of one. Maybe you resent being told that you need one. Either way, it’s the one day of the year where you’re not encouraged to “be yourself,” because everybody always rolls their eyes when you try and pull that. Luckily, the Rookie staff has shared some of their most creative costume ideas to inspire you should you want to be edible, adorable, dangerous, or just plain dead come October 31.

Kuchisake-onna

By Leeann

This is me dressed up as Kuchisake-onna, aka the Slit-Mouthed Woman, a Japanese urban legend the gist of which is that a beautiful woman wearing a surgical mask approaches children on playgrounds and asks, “Am I beautiful?” If the child says yes, the woman rips off her mask, revealing her HORRIBLY MUTILATED face and says, “Am I beautiful NOW?!” She then produces a gigantic pair of scissors and proceeds to, um, cut up the poor moppet’s face, Joker-style. PRETTY AWESOME, RIGHT?!

I’m proud to say I did this makeup myself with no prior experience beyond watching Dawn of the Dead a million times, so I promise you don’t have to be some sort of special-effects genius to do this. You will need the following products, which I bought at a Halloween costume shop:

Bruise makeup. I love Ben Nye’s Master Bruise Wheel for the perfectly gross colors, and also the name. But you can get the same effect with cheapie zombie-makeup kits at CVS, or with lipstick you already own. The most important colors are deep red and purple.

Stipple sponge. This is for the makeup application. You can make your own by snipping a bunch of little holes into a regular makeup sponge.

A toothpick

1. Make the wound. Paint a thin layer of liquid latex on either side of your mouth—this will be your scary smile, so make it big!

2. When the latex is mostly dry, take a toothpick and gently drag it through the middle of the latex to expose your real skin underneath. Then roll the inner edges of the latex back to make it look like it’s gaping (ewww):

3. OK, here’s the fun part: dressing the wound! Using black eyeliner, color the inner edges of the wound, where the blood is oldest. This will give your wound DEPTH and DIMENSION, like a beautiful sunset.

4. Using your stipple sponge, lightly dab your dark red (or purple) bruise makeup (or lipstick). Then DAB (don’t smear) the color on the outside of the wound—apply more color near the center, and less as you move toward your real skin. This should look REALLY CREEPY at this point:

5. Dip a toothpick into the fake blood, and apply it to the inner part of the wound. Don’t use too much, or the blood will trickle down your face all night in a realistic, but sticky and unpleasant, stream.

6. Use the stipple sponge to apply some sickly green or yellow to the outer edge of the wound for that “been walking around with this grievous flesh wound for a week now” look:

7. Use the cake makeup to paint your face and neck, and apply dark eye shadow under your eyes for that undead pallor. Grab a pair of big, old-timey shears (try to get the all-metal kind, because plastic isn’t terrifying), find a surgical mask somewhere, throw on a trench coat, and go give people nightmares. AM I BEAUTIFUL NOW?

Aww these are so great!
I was Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dalí last year and the year before that so I wanted to keep up the famous artist trend this year but I don’t think people would appreciate me frolicking around topless with chewed up gum “starifications” all over me declaring myself Hannah Wilke, the awesome 1970s feminist performance artist…

And Ana Mendieta!
But oh Laia, I kind of stalked you because I was sort of like WOW COOL I LOVE ROOKIE AND LAIA LOVES HANNAH WILKE AND THAT’S JUST TOO AWESOME! Anyway, you’re in a band? Is there any way to listen to your music?
(sorry if that’s creepy)
xoxo

Also, tips for those Drama techies out there (i know there have to be some…): My school orders props and some costumes from various magazines. These magazines sell everything imaginable, from plastic swords, disappearing knives, and guns, to wigs, and hats, to all the colors of the rainbow makeup. So steal that and order from it, because you can get a rubber dagger for 1.50 and that is pretty cool.

I wanted to share this Tim Burton Corpse Bride Halloween makeup tutorial with everyone because it is just so awesome! Last year I was a cupcake and I sewed my own ‘tinfoil’ dress and made a cherry on top hat, I’ll link that too!

I wish there was a god of pizza that could bless you and Rookie for that wonderful costume (or should we say allegory to the gloriousness of pizza). For now, I just wish you all lots and lots of pizza parties.
I love your Sailor Venus costume! While it’s not intricate cosplay it isn’t tacky and doesn’t mean to look like it either. Very well done, and that’s coming from a “Moonie” that wears the Cosmic Heart Compact every day of her life!

One year three friends and I went as Black Riders from LOTR … or specifically the two strongest were a horse, the smallest rode the horse, and I (being neither strong nor small) led the horse to stop it crashing into things. A couple of years ago I discovered that M&S (big british department-store chain, for those who don’t have access to the magic that is the M&S food section and its friends) stocks classic little-girl school dresses up to ‘Age 14’, which was just big enough for my generously-built 19-year-old self. So that year I went as ‘myself: aged 5’.

(I totally recommend those dresses by the way! They are classic, adorable and come in loads of colours. Plus: only £11! John Lewis is also great because they sell school uniforms for a whole load of random private schools, so you can get great little pleated skirts and stuff there).

Krista…I’m just admitting I have a ginormous crush on you. o-o Just throwing that out there. Even more so than David Bowie in Labrinyth. Ya make me hot. And I would be a zombie, ladies, but I’m super scared of them. (Makes no sense because my favorite TV show is The Walking Dead.) This year I’m going to be Mavis from Hotel Translyvania. I dyed my hair black as an experiment last month, and got bangs. But after reading about Lydia here (who I love) I wish I could be her. But it’d be too expensive :/

My sister was Angela Chase last year! Awesome idea!!
One year I was Lupa (the she-wolf that raised Romulus and Remus from Roman mythology). I got a run-of-the-mill wolf mask and then carried around two naked baby-dolls with me.
Last year I was the astronaut Sally Ride (who I LOVE!), but now that makes me sad, because she just died recently :(

DO BLACK DAHLIA DO IT DO IT DO IT.
I tried watching that stupid movie this week but my friend’s mom changed the channel to Dr. Phil. -_- Isn’t it a book, too? Anyway, do it. It will be epic. GET MEN TO BE THE SEXY DETECTIVES.

i had this huge outfit planned for a friends halloween party- Janet from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but i just realised i have to go away with my grandparents….. that sucks. Love Marie’s pizza dress

Marceline!!! Definitely Marceline! you get to have an axe bass, and what could be better than that? haha :D Lady Rainicorn also has some awesome potential, but perhaps you need to have a friend (or friends?) to be the body, the tail, etc. haha also you’ll have to learn to speak Korean too :D

Idk who Marceline is, but all your other ideas….are like my favorites. I love Lady Rainicorn with a passion- but Spirited Away is my favorite movie. And Finn is Finn. Cute blonde Finn. Good luck with the decision.